Once that forcefully maintained spirit relaxed, Wen Yu collapsed and fell ill for several days.

After examining her, the imperial physician said that she had overworked her mind and exhausted her spirit these past days, damaging her body, resulting in deficiencies of both vital energy and blood. She needed careful recuperation.

Zhao Bai no longer dared let Wen Yu tire herself. After consulting with the accompanying officials, all trivial matters were handed over to them to handle, allowing Wen Yu to rest quietly first.

But with the war not yet completely concluded, how could Wen Yu rest? After sleeping in a daze for several days, when her spirits improved slightly, what she asked about were still matters like Mu Youliang’s injuries, Heyi’s whereabouts, and the battle situation at Tiger Gorge Pass.

The cold rain of late autumn pattered ceaselessly outside the window.

Zhao Bai took a soft pillow to prop behind Wen Yu, using a spoon to scoop medicinal broth from the bowl to feed her: “The imperial physician personally examined him. Although General Mu’s injuries are severe, his life is no longer in danger. You need not worry.”

“After Heyi withdrew that day, she continued to lead those ten-thousand-some remnant soldiers wandering around Panshi City, seemingly unwilling to return to Western Liang just like that. During this time, she also came to harass beneath the city walls a few times, but they’re just scattered troops—no longer a threat.”

The medicine was somewhat hot. Zhao Bai stirred it with the spoon in the bowl, continuing: “Yesterday we received a letter from Lord Li Xun. He and Lord Chen Wei’s reinforcement army are already on their way and will arrive at Panshi City shortly. After receiving this news, the generals in the city have been discussing matters regarding going out to eliminate the Western Liang remnant forces.”

She paused slightly here, her tone somewhat puzzled: “That Western Liang barbarian woman previously refused to return to Western Liang—firstly because she hadn’t yet reached a desperate end, and secondly because she had fifty thousand troops under her command and couldn’t bring all those fifty thousand back without grain supplies. Now having suffered defeat in battle, with only about ten thousand remnant soldiers in hand, and already beginning to slaughter horses and boil grass roots and tree bark for food, instead of hurrying to escape back to Western Liang before our reinforcements arrive, she keeps wandering around Panshi City—what does she intend?”

After Wen Yu drank the spoonful of medicinal soup Zhao Bai fed her, cold wind blew in from the window, causing an itch in her throat. She couldn’t stop herself from covering her lips and coughing lowly.

Seeing this, Zhao Bai quickly rose to close the window.

When she returned to the bedside, Wen Yu had stopped coughing. Because she was ill, she hadn’t bound her hair—her head of black hair was simply loose and flowing, truly like satin, yet it also made her complexion appear even paler, with barely any color in her lips. Only because she had coughed severely just now, her eyes were currently suffused with a thin layer of red.

She said slowly: “A’Zhao, have you heard the story of the Hegemon King’s suicide at the Wu River?”

–

It was already mealtime. In Western Liang’s temporary encampment, cooking smoke was sparse.

The soldiers below sat leaning against each other in small groups of two or three. The chipped ceramic bowls they held, scavenged from peasant households, all contained boiled grass roots and tree bark that had turned brown.

The soldiers on rotating guard duty couldn’t even stand straight. Each had unsteady steps, starving until their cheeks were sunken and their faces ashen gray. They could only stabilize themselves by leaning on the long spears in their hands.

An equally disheveled personal guard carried a bowl of meat stew into the tent, forcing out a smile: “Princess, today the soldiers hunted quite a few birds outside. The meat stew is very fresh—please try some.”

In the center of the military tent was a long table spread with several maps. Heyi held a charcoal pencil, bent over those maps drawing circles continuously.

She still wore that blood-stained armor from that day. Even the dried, brownish blood scabs on her hair braids hadn’t been cleaned off. Her pale lips had already cracked and were peeling. Without lifting her head, she coldly rebuked: “Take it away.”

Since the defeat that day, she had shut herself in the tent, studying these maps without sleep or rest.

The personal guard looked at her like this, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Forcefully holding back tears, he urged: “Princess, you haven’t eaten for two days. Please eat something at least…”

As he spoke, he was about to place the meat stew on the table where Heyi had spread the maps. Unexpectedly, Heyi suddenly erupted, violently swinging her hand to knock the bowl of meat stew to the ground: “I said take it away!”

The ground was covered with yak wool carpet, so the ceramic bowl didn’t shatter, but all the meat stew inside spilled out.

Heyi raised her head. Her eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, her whole person appearing extremely angry: “Don’t bother me!”

The personal guard dared not say another word. Trembling, he knelt down and used his hands to scoop the spilled meat stew bit by bit back into the bowl. As he bowed his head, tears seemed to rapidly fall onto the yak wool carpet.

“Princess—”

When Baru, the only remaining capable general under Heyi’s command, lifted the tent flap and strode in urgently, what he saw was this scene. For a moment, he couldn’t help but fall silent.

The personal guard knew that when Baru sought Heyi, it must be for important matters to discuss. Not daring to delay further, he forcefully held back his choking sobs, hastily tidied up a bit, then withdrew carrying the half-bowl of meat stew in the bowl.

Heyi closed her eyes as if both embarrassed and exhausted, asking: “What is it?”

Baru also knew the predicament in the army now. They had neither grain supplies nor reinforcements. To think of taking Panshi City again was no different from a fantasy. But Heyi simply refused to withdraw to Western Liang. The soldiers ate grass roots and tree bark daily—not to mention morale being low, before winter had even arrived, a large number had already fallen ill.

He placed his fist against his chest and knelt down, saying with difficulty: “Princess, we… should withdraw to Western Liang!”

Heyi, who had originally closed her eyes, opened those bloodshot pupils.

Baru knew what saying those words meant. His kneeling form bowed even lower, saying miserably: “This subordinate led troops out today and encountered scouts from within Panshi City. After capturing them alive and forcing information from them, we learned that Liang territory’s reinforcement army will soon arrive at Panshi City. If we don’t withdraw now, when the Liang reinforcements arrive, we’ll have no hope of returning to Western Liang…”

“Baru.” Not having spoken for a long time, Heyi’s voice was somewhat hoarse, yet the pressure severity in her tone remained. She stared at the trusted general kneeling below, her jaw tightening: “You disappoint me greatly.”

Baru also felt embarrassed, knowing Heyi couldn’t accept this eastern invasion’s defeat. He continued to urge: “Princess, when two armies clash, one cannot judge victory or defeat by temporary success or failure. Those Central Plains people also have an old saying: ‘As long as green mountains remain, one need not worry about firewood’…”

“You think I will lose?” A cold laugh surfaced on Heyi’s pale, defeated face. She violently swept the maps she had been marking for so long toward Baru, as if urgently wanting to prove something, saying fiercely:

“Your elder brother leads thirty thousand troops attacking Tiger Gorge Pass. News of victory will reach the army in just a few days. By then, her Liang nation’s western border gateway will be wide open. How long can morale within Panshi City be maintained? No matter how many Liang territory reinforcements come, knowing their homeland has been invaded, they’ll only collapse into scattered sand!”

The stack of maps swept past Baru’s face and fell beside his knees. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and said nothing.

Tiger Gorge Pass had not sent back any news until now—far exceeding the time normally required for battle reports to return. His elder brother Nilu was most cautious and would absolutely not be negligent about battle reports. Everyone understood what this meant, but at this critical juncture, no one dared speak it aloud.

His silence seemed to further enrage Heyi. She kicked over the table, her eyes nearly splitting as she continued shouting: “The sixteen desert tribes are merely a rabble! Do you think they can truly trap the Royal City?

“When the forty thousand troops I sent back return to the Royal City, just watch them scatter like frightened rats!”

She didn’t know if she was trying to convince herself or convince Baru. After shouting all this, she turned and sat back in that large chair covered with tiger skin, gripping with one hand that jade seal Pei Song had once presented. Her grip was so forceful that the veins on the back of her hand bulged prominently: “We only need to continue wearing down Hanyang. Whether it’s Tiger Gorge Pass or the Royal City sending back news of victory, the one who loses will be that Hanyang!”

“Before then, all who disturb our military morale shall be executed!”

Heyi’s gaze toward Baru was extremely fierce: “Considering General Baru is a first-time offender, today he shall only be punished with thirty military rod strikes as a warning to others.”

–

Three days later, Liang territory’s reinforcement army arrived at Panshi City. Heyi still hadn’t been able to wait for news of victory from Tiger Gorge Pass.

Using intelligence the defending forces within the city had previously collected, the Liang army quickly began large-scale elimination of Western Liang forces within their territory. After several battles, Heyi was beaten into successive retreats. Finally, she could only be forced to lead her remnant soldiers back to defend Gole City, from which point she virtually fell gravely ill.

Chen Wei led troops to surround Gole City. Knowing the city had been without grain for many days, he didn’t forcibly attack. He only had large pots of soup and meat boiled daily outside the city, calling challenges and urging surrender.

The Western Liang soldiers defending the city walls—because the army’s warhorses were nearly depleted, each time a warhorse was slaughtered, the entire army had to eat that bit of horse meat boiled with grass roots and tree bark for a day. So what was distributed to their bowls, besides the astringent soup broth boiled from grass roots and tree bark, couldn’t touch even a bit of meat.

Smelling the meat fragrance from below the city that nearly shattered their reason, unable to withstand this torment, soldiers who committed suicide or intended to surrender were numerous. But the latter all had their heads cut off on the spot by the officers.

The urgent situation at the city tower was reported to the generals, but Heyi had long since fallen unconscious from illness.

There were also no medicines left in the army. Fortunately, the old monk understood some pharmacology. From the grass roots and tree bark the soldiers below had collected, he picked some that could be used, boiled them into a soup and forced Heyi to drink it. Only then did Heyi regain consciousness that night.

When the old monk went to deliver medicine again, a group of officers led by Baru, all looking defeated, blocked the old monk’s path. Bowing their heads rather embarrassedly, they spoke: “Master, the Princess has always respected you most. In the current situation… staying in Chen territory any longer will only cause the soldiers below to die in vain. You… please urge the Princess…”

–

The door creaked lightly. When the old monk pushed the door open and entered, he saw candles burning on the candlestick in the room. The candlelight stretched the shadow of the golden arm bracelet placed on the stool beside the bed into a long diagonal.

Heyi had grown much thinner these past days. The original arm bracelet couldn’t stay on her arm, so she had a maid remove it.

She was awake. How much of what those generals outside the door had said she had heard was unknown. At this moment when the old monk entered, she had no reaction, only staring blankly in the dim yellow halo of candlelight at a spider by the window that was spinning its web.

The old monk sighed lightly: “Princess, it’s time to drink your medicine.”

The window lattice wasn’t closed tightly. Light rain fell outside, cold wind invading the room, blowing apart the spider web that the spider had finally fixed at one end. That spider climbed along the gossamer-thin spider thread, trembling against the cold wind as it went to re-weave its web.

Heyi still stared unblinkingly, asking the old monk: “Does Master also think I should withdraw?”

The old monk followed Heyi’s gaze toward the spider at the window lattice. Just then another strong gust of cold wind blew in, destroying most of the web the spider had just repaired. That tiny spider still climbed along the fine spider thread, tirelessly going to repair the web.

The old monk sighed: “What traps the spider is not this rain outside, nor that web, but the spider’s heart that cannot abandon that web.”

Heyi laughed out loud, her expression extremely sarcastic. When she turned her face away, tears were hidden in her eyes: “They say those who leave the secular world don’t tell lies, but Master, you’ve also lied for me, haven’t you?

“I’m not at all conceived from a golden leopard entering my mother’s dreams. My father was the previous Western Liang King.”

The old monk closed his eyes.

Heyi spoke of this imperial secret that in Western Liang had long been something everyone kept sealed lips about. Pain like needles was also suppressed in her eyes: “My uncle—the current Western Liang King—cannot tolerate me, also because of this.”

The Western Liang King’s consort back then was a renowned first beauty among all the desert tribes. Before she was selected as the late king’s consort, the two had already been mutually in love.

But then a palace coup occurred in the Royal City. The late king was killed, and the late king’s younger brother took the Western Liang King’s position. Heyi’s mother’s clan was powerful. To win over her mother’s clan, Heyi’s uncle poisoned his own wife, claiming externally she had died of illness, wanting to make Heyi’s mother the Queen Consort.

At that time, Heyi’s mother was already pregnant with Heyi. To preserve Heyi, she lied that a golden leopard had entered her dreams and crashed into her belly, resulting in the pregnancy.

When the old monk saved Heyi back then, to preserve this innocent life that seemed to bear Heaven’s decree, he also tacitly approved that lie.

All these years, this past matter had almost become a forbidden topic that all those who knew didn’t discuss.

“I killed all my uncle’s adult sons. Those who weren’t yet adults—I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and Mother wouldn’t permit it anymore either.” Moisture slid down both sides of Heyi’s temples. She was still smiling, yet her voice had already gone hoarse: “Because they are also my mother’s sons.

“Master, it’s not that the spider refuses to avoid this wind and rain, nor that the spider can’t bear to abandon that web, but rather… it has nowhere left to avoid, nothing left it can abandon.”

She had mobilized all of Western Liang’s strength to attack the Liang and Chen nations. Now after successive defeats, countless sons had died in foreign lands, yet she had never truly opened the Central Plains gateway. Instead, she had caused the Royal City to be besieged.

If no news of victory came from Tiger Gorge Pass, this nationwide attack would be a joke.

She had no face to return to Western Liang anymore.

The cold rain and bitter wind continued. When that completed web was blown apart by the wind once more, the spider clinging to it was also blown down by the wind.

The old monk recited a Buddhist chant with compassion amid the candlelight shadows filling the room.

–

Heyi fell even more gravely ill. There were too few usable medicines in the city, and the only food that could provide nourishment was horse meat stew. Combined with her greatly damaged spirit, her body grew weaker day by day in illness. When the Liang army outside the city launched a major assault, Heyi was so ill she couldn’t even get out of bed.

The Western Liang remnant forces who had long lost their will to fight—how could they withstand the unstoppable Liang army? When news that the city gates had been breached came back, the personal guards rushed into her room in panic, pulled up the sick Heyi, draped a cloak over her and supported her in escape: “Princess, the East Gate has been breached. The Liang army has killed their way in. We subordinates will escort you out of the city!”

Supported by them, Heyi stumbled out of the room. She raised a pair of sickly eyes to sweep across the camp. Everywhere her gaze fell, there were deserters who had thrown away their armor and weapons.

Chaos was everywhere. Those sounds reaching Heyi’s ears once made her feel confused. She even felt as if she had become an outsider watching a shadow puppet show.

“Princess? Princess?” The personal guard discovered Heyi’s dazed state. Forcefully holding back grief, he shook her vigorously twice, crying: “Pull yourself together! As long as we return to Western Liang, return to the shores of Lake Yisong, one day we can attack the Central Plains again and wash away today’s shame!”

Heyi came to her senses somewhat in this violent shaking. She turned her head to look at the personal guard supporting her, her lips pale as she murmured along: “Return to the shores of Lake Yisong…”

These words seemed to give her some strength. She suddenly broke free from the personal guard’s support, looking all around, asking: “Where is Master?”

No one answered. So she pushed through the crowd and hurried back. The personal guards, seeing this, hastily called “Princess” and followed.

Chasing to the old monk’s dwelling, they saw Heyi supporting herself against the door frame with one hand, not entering. Her whole person seemed frozen at the doorway as if under a paralysis spell. The personal guards sensed something amiss. Rushing forward to look, they saw the old monk still wearing that ochre-colored robe, his expression serene as he sat cross-legged on the bed.

A personal guard boldly entered. After extending his hand to check the old monk’s breath, his voice carried a hint of desperate crying tone: “Master… has been in seated meditation for quite some time.”

Some personal guards immediately cried out. More looked blankly toward Heyi, waiting for her decision.

Heyi seemed not to have heard clearly what the personal guard had just cried out. With unsteady steps, she walked into the room, calling: “Master?”

No one answered her. Her eye sockets turned red, yet not a single tear fell. She slowly knelt before the old monk’s bed, reaching out to touch the old monk. Beneath that ochre-colored robe was complete rigidity. As Heyi bowed her head, moisture finally overflowed from her eyes, sliding past her nose bridge and falling rapidly. She chokingly called again: “Master?”

Quite a few personal guards also awkwardly turned their backs to wipe tears. Knowing the current situation was urgent, they forcefully held back their grief and urged: “Princess, Master is gone. Now is not the time for mourning. Please accept our condolences and leave the city first!”

Heyi slowly closed her eyes. The wet traces of tears passing over her nose bridge still remained. She said hoarsely: “Bring lamp oil.”

The city was breached. The Liang army had killed their way over. She could no longer properly arrange for the old monk’s remains.

The personal guards quickly brought lamp oil and poured it all over the courtyard.

Heyi personally threw down the torch. Flames instantly leaped and rolled up. Sparks splattered, carrying lamp oil that fell onto her hands, causing heart-piercing pain—so painful that watching this sea of fire that instantly blazed up, her tears flowed endlessly.

The personal guards supported her and continued fleeing, consoling: “Princess, don’t lose heart. As long as we escape into the great desert, we’ll be saved!”

Escape?

Heyi’s entire body was limp, relying entirely on the personal guards’ support to stand steady. Wind blew the dried blood-stained hair at her forehead. She raised her eyes toward the road ahead. In her eyes was no longer the vigorous ambition of former times—only endless desolation and exhaustion remained.

Where else could they escape to?

With that Liang army in relentless pursuit behind them, they couldn’t escape into the great desert either.

The group fled in disarray to the West Gate. The personal guards supporting Heyi’s escape all stopped in their tracks.

—Another military force had appeared ahead in the great desert. That glaring bright red “Liang” character flag fluttered in the wind, like guillotine blades that had drunk their fill of blood.

The Western Liang soldiers following behind cried out in despair: “How is there also a Liang army in the western desert?”

At the very front of the military formation, the person mounted high on horseback drew back a bowstring. Against the sunlight, their face couldn’t be seen clearly, but the force and arc with which that three-stone great bow was fully drawn was enough to make one’s heart turn cold.

The personal guards almost tremblingly raised shields to protect Heyi in the center.

With a “swoosh,” the sharp arrow left the bowstring. The bowstring snapped back, vibrating continuously.

That long arrow that came whistling with the sound of wind deeply embedded itself in the cracks of the city bricks of Gole City, which had suffered extensive bombardment. Strung on the arrow shaft was an oval object wrapped in black cloth.

A soldier boldly went to unwrap the black cloth. When a bloody human head rolled out from within, the Western Liang remnant soldiers all cried out in terror: “It’s… it’s Lord Envoy!”

“Swoosh!” Another long arrow strung with a black cloth-wrapped object embedded into the city wall.

After the soldiers below unwrapped and looked, their crying grew worse: “It’s General Chiti who led troops to relieve the Royal City!”

“The army that went to relieve the Royal City was also intercepted and killed by them?”

“Swoosh! Swoosh!” Several more long arrows embedded into the city wall.

As the Western Liang soldiers unwrapped the black cloth strung on them, their knees directly went soft. They knelt down, wailing miserably: “It’s… it’s the heads of General Nilu and General Nuger…”

Despair surged up layer by layer like a tide. Crying filled the air all around.

Although they had long anticipated that the Tiger Gorge Pass battle wasn’t going well, when actually seeing those bloody and mangled heads placed right before them, Heyi only felt her entire body lose even more strength. Everything she saw before her eyes was virtually spinning.

That single spirit supporting her until now was finally gone. She had completely lost.

There were so many crying sounds all around—from her personal guards, from her trusted generals, and also from those bottom-tier soldiers who had completely lost hope.

Heyi raised her eyes amid this clamor, looking toward the boundless great desert ahead. Her line of sight was blocked by that wall of black iron humanity stretching across the desert.

That wall of humanity was more towering than any pass or gorge she had encountered before.

The sun overhead seemed at this moment to become a glowing white shadow, scattering not half a bit of warmth. Her chest had become an ice cavern that had been smashed open, emitting forest-cold air outward.

She was still gazing west, only she could no longer see the sand dunes belonging to Western Liang, nor smell the wind blowing from the shores of Lake Yisong.

Behind her came the chaotic sound of galloping hooves. A soldier looked back in panic, discovering it was that Liang army that had breached the East Gate pursuing them.

The officer on horseback shouted from afar: “Put down your weapons. Those who surrender with bound hands can keep their lives!”

This battle—victory and defeat had long been clear. There was no longer any need to take up arms.

A soldier asked in a small, panicked voice: “Should we surrender?”

But that voice was too small—blown by the wind, it scattered.

Baru, who had been howling in agony while holding his elder brother’s head until his voice was hoarse, cut off a piece of his own robe and re-wrapped his elder brother’s head that had been trampled by horse hooves beyond recognition. He tied it to his own chest. Extreme anger and hatred had filled his eyes bloodshot: “Western Liang’s warriors only fight—we do not surrender!”

Some soldiers like him gripped their battle blades with crimson eyes. More bottom-tier soldiers, starved until their faces were ashen and thin as skeletons, showed panic, fear, and grief on their faces instead.

Heyi extended her hand to press on Baru’s shoulder, stopping what he was about to say next.

Her gaze swept extremely slowly across those haggard faces of bottom-tier soldiers. At this moment, she was finally willing to admit that it was her ambition that had harmed them.

She said palely: “Heyi… has failed you all.”

Baru, still immersed in grief, hearing Heyi say this, seemed to understand something. He urgently called: “Princess…”

Heyi only looked at him once. Her gaze continued sweeping back with sorrow and heaviness, saying: “You all… go back to the shores of Lake Yisong in my stead…”

The mistake she alone had forged—there was no need for the soldiers below to continue sending their lives to waste following her.

But as a Western Liang Princess, she naturally also had her pride.

Heyi’s eyes brimmed with tears as she seriously looked at the face of every Western Liang soldier who had fought alongside her until now. Finally, she looked back once more toward Western Liang’s direction in the setting sun.

Lake Yisong—their mother river. Next year, the flowers along those shores would surely still bloom densely, and the grass would be lush and green…

She had chased her ambition, racing to this point, far from that land. In the end, she could never return.

When that chipped battle blade was unsheathed, all the Western Liang soldiers below Gole City’s gates cried out in anguished tears: “Princess!”

Fresh blood splattered onto the sandy ground, burying that Western Liang Princess’s lifetime of pride and ambition here together.

–

The west wind howled fiercely. The hundred grasses were pale.

When Wen Yu appeared in a palanquin carriage outside Gole City’s East Gate, Liang flags had already been re-planted atop Gole City’s tower.

Led by Baru, a group of Western Liang officers had their hands and feet bound and were forced to kneel before the city gates. Chen Wei and others led troops arrayed behind them.

When Wen Yu took Zhao Bai’s hand and stepped out of the palanquin carriage, everyone bowed down: “We pay respects to the Princess!”

Chen Wei cupped his hands and stepped forward from the ranks: “We subordinates—fortunately did not fail our mission. The Western Liang remnant forces within our territory have all surrendered. Only that Western Liang barbarian woman… chose to take her own life.”

An accompanying junior officer stepped forward holding a wooden box. A nearby Azure Cloud Guard received it, and after opening it, his expression changed slightly as he presented it for Wen Yu to examine.

The strategists who had accompanied Wen Yu—those close enough to see the gore in that box—all gasped slightly and averted their gazes.

Wen Yu looked quietly for a moment, then waved her hand to signal the Azure Cloud Guard to withdraw. She instructed: “Sew it back onto her body, prepare a proper coffin, and send it back to Western Liang.”

Baru, kneeling and restrained ahead, heard this. He raised a pair of red, swollen eyes to look over, coldly laughing as he said in halting Central Plains language: “Hypocritical… pretense! False!”

Almost the instant his words fell, the armored soldiers behind had already kicked his back heavily, knocking his entire person down and forcing him to prostrate on the ground.

The accompanying strategists were also furious: “This barbarian bandit is so ungrateful and still dares disrespect the Princess? What use is keeping him alive!”

Baru was pressed with his face against the ground. Because he struggled forcefully, his entire face had flushed red. Even the whites of his eyes were suffused with a layer of red from blood congestion. He laughed hoarsely: “If you want to kill, then kill. What do we Western Liang men fear from one death?”

Zhao Bai’s gaze was cold and severe. Her long sword had already unsheathed with a “clang,” but was stopped by Wen Yu’s raised hand.

The fur trim on her cloak was blown by the cold wind. The dark-colored cloak was like a silent mountain, further accentuating that countenance as white as Heavenly Mountain snow: “A defeated general—what is there for this Palace to put on pretense about?”

That light, casual sentence left Baru speechless, his face full of shame and anger.

Wen Yu calmly lowered her eyes to survey him: “This Palace merely disdains turning the dispute between two nations into venting anger on an enemy general’s corpse. As for your anger and hatred…”

Her expression remained warm and serene, yet seemed mixed with some coldness: “…Truly unreasonable. Those who violated our territory and bullied our people were you Western Liang. You drove your horses in eastern invasion—how much innocent Chen territory people’s blood stained your blades? Invading with your entire nation, in this yellow sand desert, how many loyal bones of our Central Plains sons are buried?”

“These blood debts, one by one, this Palace shall demand repayment from your Western Liang.” The setting sun hung high behind her. In those phoenix-like imperious eyes, a cold sharpness also hazily seeped through.

The civil officials behind also denounced: “War prisoners who abandoned their troops to surrender—what face do you have to bark wildly?”

Shame and pain intertwined on Baru’s face. Half his face pressed into the sandy ground had been marked by coarse sand particles. In his ears echoed again and again Heyi’s words telling them to return to the shores of Lake Yisong. Biting his teeth, tears rolled from his eyes, quickly disappearing into the sandy ground.

Chen Wei made a gesture. The soldiers below then escorted all the Western Liang prisoners of war away.

Only then did he quickly step forward: “This subordinate still has—”

Wen Yu raised her hand to stop what Chen Wei was about to say. Her body had not yet recovered. After receiving news that Chen Wei had begun forcefully attacking Gole City, she had rushed here from Panshi City through wind and dust all the way. Holding on until now was already her limit. Even though she had applied makeup, it was difficult to conceal the pallor on her face. She said:

“Everything in the city can be slowly deployed. Lord, first mobilize all the troops you can mobilize and immediately rush to Western Liang’s Royal City to reinforce the sixteen tribes. Heyi sent forty thousand troops back to relieve the Royal City. Without reinforcements, the sixteen tribes may not be a match…”

Chen Wei, however, smiled: “What this subordinate wanted to report to the Princess is precisely this matter. We no longer need to send troops to reinforce the sixteen tribes!”

A rare expression of astonishment surfaced on Wen Yu’s face.

From behind the Black Armored Army crowding the city gates came Fan Yuan’s voice like a great bell: “Princess! Great victory at Tiger Gorge Pass! The Western Liang reinforcements returning to relieve their Royal City—we intercepted them too!”

Not only Wen Yu, but all the accompanying officials—after seeing the Black Armored Army part to make way and Fan Yuan’s group emerge from behind the city gates—were without exception first astonished, then wildly joyful.

Li Xun was so excited his speech nearly stuttered: “Old Fan?”

But Wen Yu’s gaze immediately captured another figure walking out alongside Fan Yuan.

Thinner, and darker, his features sharper than before. Yet his bearing carried a steadiness that could bear the collapse of Mount Tai. Just looking at him made one feel at ease.

Wen Yu felt her eye sockets burn with aching heat, already uncontrollably spreading with bitter sensation.

Over there, Fan Yuan hadn’t noticed Wen Yu’s strange condition and was still reporting good news on his own: ‘Fortunately, with Young Master Xiao’s vigorous assistance, Tiger Gorge Pass was able to hold. Intercepting those forty thousand Western Liang barbarian troops returning to relieve the Royal City also relied entirely on Young Master Xiao charging wounded into tens of thousands of troops to capture the main general…’

No one cared anymore what he was saying.

Xiao Li walked closer step by step. The damaged armor on his body carried the wind, frost, and killing aura of the battlefield. A thin layer of crimson also spread in his eyes now. The way he looked at Wen Yu was so fierce, yet so heavy—as if afraid that if he arrived one step late, everything he saw before his eyes would all be illusions.

“I’ve come to fulfill my promise, to take you back to Great Liang.”